


Past Regrets

by Merfilly



Category: Star Trek: The Original Series
Genre: M/M, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-07-06
Updated: 2009-07-06
Packaged: 2017-10-14 10:02:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 517
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/148074
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bones finally faces the regrets he felt in Spock when they were one.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Past Regrets

Bones found himself outside the door of a particular cabin, clearing his nerves by standing there, waiting to announce himself. He felt foolish, believing he was making more of the scattered memories in his mind than he ought to.

And yet...

He had safeguarded Spock's soul. He had endured hell on earth and beyond, and watched the suffering of his friends risking everything for the chance to rejoin body and soul of their lost friend. The memories in his mind burned him, made him need to reach the closure that dangled just out of reach.

The camping trip might have been the better venue for this, but Bones didn't want to endure Jim's butting-in that was bound to happen. That alone had driven the doctor to return to the half-built starship that was to be their next command, a vessel that had not yet earned the right to be called Enterprise, despite her registry.

He remained rooted to the spot, unable to make that last motion, the one to activate the door chime. What he remembered might be no more than the insanity of the merged minds. He honestly was far too old to be chasing pipe dreams of youthful fancy.

"Damn it, Bones. You're a doctor, not a teenager," he groused at himself, thankful for the clear corridor.

The door in front of him opened, and the point of contention in Leonard McCoy's soul stood looking at him with that smug, sardonic expression of the one eyebrow raised in query.

"Come in, Doctor McCoy."

Bones glared at him, realizing the pointy-eared bastard had known he was out there. "Not until you answer one cotton-pickin' question, you green-blooded computer."

"Indeed?" Spock retorted, in the tone that said this too was expected.

"When your memory was up in my head, I got the impression there were...regrets." Bones met Spock's eyes clearly. "Tell me if I'm sniffing too many vapors here, but one of them seemed to involve me quite a bit."

"That is hardly an interrogatory form for phrasing your concern," Spock nit-picked, voice casual and cool.

Bones threw his hands up. "You know what I god damn well mean!" He turned to leave, grumbling incoherently about expecting anyone sane to cope with living analytical machines.

"You were not, as you put it, sniffing vapors," came Spock's soft reply, stopping the retreat from happening. Bones turned and looked back at the man that had been his sharpest foil for battles of wits over the past decades.

"Spock?" he asked, taking a half step back.

"Humans have a way of approaching second chances with an eye to rectifying past lapses of judgment. However, I was still calculating the probability of rejection at too high a percentage to warrant imposing on your emotional time, let alone risk irreparably harming our professional rapport," Spock stated.

Bones snorted. "If you call what we've been professional, you need to have your logic checked." Despite the words, despite Spock's visible hesitation over the matter, though, Leonard McCoy pushed on into the serene Vulcan quarters, so they could lay those regrets to permanent rest.


End file.
